xauth: problems with ssh -X and .Xauthority on nfs

[Vincent Arkesteijn]

Package: xauth
Version: 1:1.0.2-2
Severity: normal

Hi,

After upgrading from Ubuntu 7.10 to 8.04, sometimes (see below for 
an explanation of the circumstances under which this happens) I cannot 
start new X applications. For instance:
$ xlogo
No protocol specified
Error: Can't open display: :0.0
$ 

At the same time, /var/log/Xorg.0.log shows lines like the following:
AUDIT: Mon Jun  9 12:51:39 2008: 6255 X: client 34 rejected from local host (ui$

This only seems to happen after I log in to a remote host (using "ssh
-X somehost"). After that, only starting programs locally is a
problem; starting X programs from the remote host works fine. This does
not always trigger the problem, but roughly half the time. It does not
seem to make a difference whether I log in to an Ubuntu 7.10 or 8.04
machine. On the remote host, I have the same account, with a shared
(via nfs) home directory. Ths nfs server runs Ubuntu 7.10.

Logging out from the remote machine does not help. What does help,
however, is typing "xauth list" or just "cat ~/.Xauthority" in a local
terminal window. After that, I can again start new applications.

Also, just 'cat ~/.Xauthority' appear to help. Before that, sometimes I
even get:
$ ls -l .Xauthority 
ls: cannot access .Xauthority: Stale NFS file handle
$ 

I'm not sure whether xauth is the right package to report this to, so
please let me know if you think there's a better place to report this.
If there's anything I can do to help further diagnose this problem, do
ask.

Regards,
Vincent Arkesteijn.


-- System Information:
Debian Release: lenny/sid
  APT prefers hardy-updates
  APT policy: (500, 'hardy-updates'), (500, 'hardy-security'), (500, 'hardy')
Architecture: amd64 (x86_64)

Kernel: Linux 2.6.24-19-generic (SMP w/2 CPU cores)
Locale: LANG=en_US.UTF-8, LC_CTYPE=en_US.UTF-8 (charmap=UTF-8)
Shell: /bin/sh linked to /bin/bash

Versions of packages xauth depends on:
ii  cpp                   4:4.2.3-1ubuntu6   The GNU C preprocessor (cpp)
ii  libc6                 2.7-10ubuntu3      GNU C Library: Shared libraries
ii  libx11-6              2:1.1.3-1ubuntu2   X11 client-side library
ii  libxau6               1:1.0.3-2          X11 authorisation library
ii  libxext6              2:1.0.3-2build1    X11 miscellaneous extension librar
ii  libxmuu1              2:1.0.4-1          X11 miscellaneous micro-utility li
ii  x11-common            1:7.3+10ubuntu10.2 X Window System (X.Org) infrastruc

xauth recommends no packages.

-- no debconf information